Growing in Unity Day # 2

Its my second day for Growing in Unity and I just had to make an easel card for my week but I resisted the urge to make them for all five days.  These are my go to cards and the sentiment on this stamp just seemed so perfect for a card.   If you haven't checked out the sentiment sets at Unity you should give them a try they are full of great stamps.  I even fussy cut the entire image and mounted it to a lacey circle die cut from spellbinders.  I love how it looked on the stamped image and it was so much fun to color.  I added pearls to the bottom border (for those that know me, they know I love to add a bit of bling to everything).  

Please leave a comment and stop by each day this week for your chance to win your choice of two itty bitty stamps from Unity Stamp Company.  Don't let the name fool you they are not itty and some of my favorite sets are itty bitty.

Supplies Used:  Unity Stamps Lasting Thoughts, Spellbinders Lacey Circles, Spellbinders Floral Doily Accents, AC Card Stock, Shinhan Touch Markers, Lily Bee Paper, Bling

Happy 7th Birthday

I made this card for my daughters classmate who is turning 7.  My go to shape for little boys is the 3D star and I love these ticket stamps from Unity.  I always struggle with boy cards but this one came together pretty easily for me.  Maybe it means I am getting better at them, who knows the next one will probably be a struggle knowing my luck.

Supplies used: Cosmo Cricut Paper, Distress ink, twine, Unity Stamps Spotted Owl Soup, Spellbinders Stars

Die Cut Easel Card

I just love making easel cards and one of my favorite kinds is the die cut easel card.  The only thing is that not all my family knows how to open them and it can be a a bit awkward when I have to show them how to open it and display it.  Luckily I think I have them all trained by now and I can make them to my hearts content

Supplies used: Unity Stamps EP Be Mine, Carta Belle So Noted Paper, Spellbinders Foliage, Blossom 2, Butterflies 2, Lacey Squares

FWF - Celebrating the big 60

I made this person for an upcoming birthday in the family, this person was like my second mother growing up and she is having a big birthday.  Its a take on another card I made but after I made the frist one I thought of ways to make it better and instead of flowers I used a fan (my new favorite so watch for a tutorial coming soon, measurements included) and I used my favorite sentiment.

Supplies used: Spellbinders Floral Doiley Motifs, Floral Doiley Accents, Bracket Basics, Lacey Circles, Unity Stamp Everything Wonderful Sentiment Kit, DCWV Baby Girl Stack, Twine

Purple and Green CC Challenge

I made this card for the latest challenge at CropChocolate. the challenge was to make something using purple and green.  My daughter loves the color purple so I have tons of it and decided to make it my main color with some green accents.  I love this stamp from Unity and couldn't wait to use it.  Here is the easel card I made:

Here is a closeup of the easel part of the card

 

Supplies used: CM paper, Spellbinders Floral Doiley Motifs, Unity Stamps Everything Wonderful,  Cameo, bling

Tax Act Flowers

Our the DT theme for this month was nature inspired, and I knew right away what I wanted to do.  I first saw flowers made with the dictionary a long time ago but I didn't have one and I didn't want to buy one just to cut up when I knew I had another book made of the same type of paper.  I am an accountant (not a tax accountant) and I have a few out dated copies of The Income Tax Act and they were perfect for this kind of flower.  I used Hearty Barely stamps from Unity Stamp Co.  They are so cute and just perfect for little note cards for my daughter.  She loves getting them in her lunch and in fact when she saw me making the flowers she asked if I could use them on cards for her and then picked out the stamps (little imp).

Step 1
Cut 8-10 scallop circles, I folded my paper and cut 4 at once

Step 2

Ink the circles

Step 3
Spray with water or glimmer type mist

Step 4
Scrunch the circles as small as they can get

Step 5
When the circles are dry flatten them out and stack neatly on top of each other, put a brad in the centre

Step 6
Starting with the first layer pull it up around the brad and repeat for the other layers, once they are all done you can pull them apart and "fluff" the flower, after I was done I inked the edges but this is optional

  
Products used:

• Winter Festive Berries Distress Ink
• MME So Sophie Savvy Paper
• MM Brads
• Spellbinders Scallop Circles
• Spellbinders Lacey Circles
• Unity Stamps Heartly Barley

Mini Pizza iGram

 I posted the easel card that I put in this pizza box and then I realized I never posted the actual pizza box and tutorial to go with it.  I made this box to hold my easel card, they are the perfect size.  I also created an iGram to go with it, follow this link if you want to learn how to make one.  THey are called pizza style boxes but they are much too small for pizza, but they are the perfect size for easel cards

 

 

Valentine's Easel Card-FWF

I recently published an iGram for a "pizza style box" and one of the questions I get asked most often is what are they used for.  I like to use them for Easel Cards, they are the perfect holder, I made one to hold this Valentine card for my husband.  I got to use my unity stamps I got at Christmas from the EP Be Mine Collection.  They are so nice and I loved using my new stamps.

Inside of the Card

Supplies used:

• Trinity Arts Paper
• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Spellbinders Foliage
• Unity Stamps Be Mine
• Hero Arts Stamps
• Distress Inks

I am being Gossiped about :)

Normally that is not a good thing but my Quad Easel Card is being featured on the Stamping Craft Gossip site.  They were doing a review of Instructagram and decided to use my Quad Easel Card.

http://stamping.craftgossip.com/project-quad-card/2013/01/17/

Die Cut Easel Card

I love making easel cards and I thought my new spellbinders postage stamp dies would make a great die cut easel card.  I made the flower from the income tax act, I am an accountant and it's year end (which means I am crazy busy with work) but crafting is my stress buster and this seemed fitting for year end.

Closeup of the flower

Supplies used:

• Spellbinders Postage Stamps
• Spellbinders Scallops Circles
• Spellbinders Rose Creations
• MME Portebello Road 6x6
• Distress Ink

Fun with Hexagons

I made this card for the Crop Chocolate challenge #23, the challenge was to use 3 different patterns.  I normally don't mix patterns so this was a bit of a challenge for me.  I have been seeing a lot of hexagons lately, and I decided to dust of my CM hexagon punch and try it out.  I used scraps from my MME Lost and Found paper.  I really like how it turned out and I am going to try this again, plus its a great way to used scraps.

Supplies:
Spellbinders Floral Doiley Motifs
CM Hexagon Punch
MME Madison Ave 6x6
Hampton Arts Stamp
Bling

Core'dinations Hard Core Crop Die Cut Challenge

I made this easel card for the Core'dinations hard core crop.  This was for Andrea's challenge, the challenge was to create a layered and dimensional die cut with Core'dinations paper.  I made the flower from some purple Core'dinations I had and then embossed and sanded to get the other color to come through.  If you haven't used their card stock before you should.  It is very heavy but has the added benefit of a different color once you sand the surface.

Easel Card

Close up of the flower

Closeup of the bottom

Supplies:
Core'dinations card stock
Spellbinders Blossom 2
Spellbinders Floral Doiley Accents
EP Springtime Paper
Twine
Pearls

Happy Mother's Day

I made two of these Mother's day cards as part of the focus group challenge.  We were challenged to make a project with fabric.  I had been wanting to try felt flowers for a while, (I had been collecting it for a few months), and this gave me the perfect excuse to try it.  Both my mother and mother in law loved the cards, and I really like how the flowers came out so I will try this again (I have enough felt for a lot of flowers).

Spiral Flowers - Inspiration Challenge

We had our last challenge over at the Cropchocolate focus group and it was one of my favorites.  We were given this picture for inspiration

Here is what I came up with

Here is a closeup of my flowers

I used a rolled flower die to create the flowers, it was my first time using them and I really like how they turned out.  The dies were a gift from my wonderful husband, he went to the scrapbook store and knowing how much I love to make flowers bought the dies for me.  What a sweetheart I have ♥♥♥. 

Products used:

MME Stella and Rose

Spellbinders Floral Doiley Motifs

DieNamics

Basic Grey Stamps

Bling

Easel Card Tutorial

Here is the original inspiration for all the easel cards you have been seeing were inspired by this one from November.   The instructions were easy enough for my husband to follow so hopefully I can inspire you to make some.  If you do leave a comment I would love to see what you make.  

Supplies

• 4” x 12” piece of card stock
• 3.75” x 3.75” piece of decorative card stock
• 3.75” x 3.75” piece of white card stock
• 1-1.5” x 3.75” piece of card stock
• Distress ink (optional)
• Adhesive
• Scoring Tool
• Embellishments, stamps, etc

Instructions

• Take a 4” x 12” piece of card stock and cut at 4”. You will have two pieces a 8” x 4” (base) and a 4” x 4” (card top)

• Take the base piece and line it up horizontally, score it at 2” and 4”

• Fold it in half at the 4” mark and then over itself again at the 2” mark (like an accordion fold)
  
  
• Cut a piece of pattern paper 3.75” x 3.75”, decorate and embellish as desired.  Once it is embellished adhere to the top piece (4” x 4”)
  
  
• Adhere the 4”x 4” top piece to the accordion fold and line it up so that when the card is flat it is 4”x 4” (top of the base piece to the top of the accordion fold)

• Take a 3.75” x 1.5” strip (punch, stamp or embellish if desired) and adhere to the bottom of the 3.75” x 3.75” white piece (this is where the top will rest on, creating the easel effect).  Since this part will be visible when the card is open, you can place your greeting here or do some other decorative effect.

• Open the card and adhere the 3.75” x 3.75” piece of white card stock to the bottom on the inside.

• When closed the card will measure 4” x 4”, but when open the top piece can rest on the small piece (1.5” x 3.75”) and create an easel

Card Closed

Card Open

Inside of Card

I have a video you can watch here:

Products used:
Spellbinders Circles
MME Holly Jolly
CTMH Stamps

Gate Fold Card

Every Christmas and special occasion my husband and I make each other a gift.  Sometimes its a mini album, or a card but we try to make something special for the other one.  I love that my husband takes the time to make me something special although he usually complains its not as nice as mine.  This year I think my husband is trying out do me.  He made me a 6x6 Easel Card and even put a present that opens inside of it.  He took my idea for the snowman and ran with it, notice that the man has a Windsor knot on his tie!  Here is his card:

Here is the card on the inside with the present that opens (there was a special message for me)

For my card to him, I decided to make a gate fold card, I don't know what this kind of opening is called but it really looks nice and is now one of my favorites.  The ovals are attached on opposite sides and come together to lock the card closed.

Card opening

Products used:

Spellbinders Ovals

Spellbinders Big Scalloped Ovals

CTMH Stamps and ink

Christmas Cards

The cards are finally finished and in the mail, so now I can post them.  I love how these turned out and I really wish I had gotten more of the MME Lush paper when I had the chance.  When my family saw these I got orders for more, so I am now down to my last sheet.  I cut the cirlces using spellbinders large circles, they were the perfect space between sizes for what I needed, and the tickets were actually one stamp but I cut them apart and got 3 different cards.  I am very happy with how these turned out, but now I want more of the paper.  When I got it I liked it but had no idea how to use it and now I wish I had gotten more.

Inside

 Version 1

 Version 2

  Version 3

Products Used:

MME Lush Paper

Stickles

Unity Stamps

Spellbinders Circles

Christmas Cards Sneak Peak

I have a confession to make, even though I love making cards I never give Christmas cards.  I don't know why I never do but this year I am turning over a new leaf.  These are the cards I am making for the Crop Chocolate design team.  I used the MME Red Flocked Lush paper, and it looks so nice.  I didn't plan on using it for Christmas cards but it works so well.  I guess sometimes you find Christmas paper in the most unlikely of places.   I will post pictures of the finished cards when the girls have received theirs.  It seems like most of my latest projects have to wait for something before I can post them lately but I have been very busy crafting.

Feature project on Crop Chocolate

I am so excited to finally post this.  I was featured on the Crop Chocolate blog as a guest designer.  I made a video tutorial on how to make the flower on this easel card.  It was my first video and it took me 4 times to get it right but I am so excited to have been featured.  For this card I used Basic Grey Wisteria that I got at Crop Chocolate and the ribbon was from some "Hot Chocolate" they sent a while ago.  Here is the link showing the video tutorial and some more pictures of my project.

http://blog.cropchocolate.com/2011/07/guest-designer-corrie-project-easel.html

Close up of the flower

Inside of the card

Products Used:

BG Wisteria Paper

Spellbinders Blossom 2